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BUSINESS
Better Banking for people with dementia
DEMENTIA Australia’s Centre for Dementia Learning has today launched ‘Better Banking for people with dementia’ - a new online education program for banks and the financial sector to learn about the impact of dementia and how to provide improved services for people living with dementia, their families and carers.
Dementia Australia Chair and former Chair of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Professor Graeme Samuel AC said Better Banking for people with dementia is an invaluable education program everyone in the Australian financial sector should undertake.
“Better banking for people living with dementia requires only one hour to complete yet provides a comprehensive overview of dementia and advice on how to better meet the financial needs of people living with dementia,” Professor Samuel said.
“With an estimated 459,000 Australians living with dementia in 2020 and numbers on the rise, now is the time for banks and the financial sector to learn about dementia and how to best serve customers impacted by the disease.”
Better banking for people living with dementia is a simple to use online program with interactive videos, quizzes, clickable graphics and flashcards, all designed to effectively engage and educate.
Extensive research and development was undertaken in creating the program including consultation with Australians living with dementia and their carers,Bendigo Bank, Victoria Police and The Hon Dr Kay Patterson AO, Age Discrimination Commissioner.
Marnie Baker, Managing Director Bendigo Bank said Better Banking for people with dementia has been tested by Bendigo Bank staff with overwhelmingly positive feedback to-date.
“The increasing number of Australians living with dementia deserve financial services provided by staff
that are knowledgeable, understanding and compassionate towards their needs,” said Ms Baker.
“Better Banking for people with dementia enhances the education and support Bendigo Bank staff have and creates the dementia-friendly experience our customers should expect.”
For enquires about purchasing access to Better Banking for people with dementia please contact the Centre for Dementia Learning on 1300 DEMENTIA (1300 336 368) or viaemail.
Dementia Australia wishes to thank Bendigo Bank for its support of the development of Better Banking for people with dementia.
Dementia Australia is the national peak body and charity for people, of all ages, living with all forms of dementia, their families and carers. It provides advocacy, support services, education and information. An estimated 459,000 people have dementia in Australia. This number is projected to reach almost 1.1 million by 2058. Dementia Australia’s services are supported by the Australian Government.
National Dementia Helpline 1800 100 500. Interpreter service available .
HomeBuilder starts to lift residential building loans
NEW ABS lending figures for July show that HomeBuilder has started to drive a recovery in loans for home building. “The 9% jump in the number of owner occupier loans for the building of new homes in the month is encouraging and shows the highly effective impact of HomeBuilding in activating demand,” Denita Wawn, CEO of Master Builders Australia said. “However, the outlook for the industry and the economy is extremly grim and HomeBuilder should be extended for 12 months in the Federal Budget to help maintain a pipeline of work and be a lifeline for buiders and tradies,” she said. “Lending for residential land purchase jumped by 31.5% over the month. There was also an increase (+4.0%) in the number of loans provided for the purchase of new dwellings by owner occupiers during July,” Denita Wawn said. “The home renovations market also appears to be responding well to the roll out of HomeBuilder across the country. During July, the number of loans to owner occupiers for home alterations/additions experienced a 6.3% uplift compared with the previous month,” she said. “Our latest forecasts estimate that HomeBuilder is likely to boost new home building commencements by almost 10,000 during 2020-21 but the sector still faces a forecast of 27% decline,” Denita Wawn said. “The heavy interlinkage between construction and the wider Australia economy means that the economic benefits across a range of sectors will be even greater than a boost to residentil building activity,” she said. “While the purchase of established homes are obviously not eligible for HomeBuilder, lending in this part of the loan market still jumped substantially during July. This is another encouraging sign, showing that HomeBuilder is starting to help strengthen sentiment even in those areas which is does not directly target,” Denita Wawn said.
AMP “Fee for No Service” rip off could see half a million shareholders claim losses over massive share price fall
AS many as 500,000 shareholders may be eligible to join the class action which was commenced after AMP’s share price crashed when it was forced to disclose that it had ripped off customers during the Banking Royal Commission.
A Court-ordered claim registration process is currently open with a deadline of 23 November 2020.
The class action alleges AMP’s shares tanked after the company disclosed to the Banking Royal Commission that it charged customer fees for no service, failed to notify ASIC after becoming aware of the breaches and then mislead ASIC about the extent of its misconduct.
The revelations in April 2018 saw AMP’s shares to fall by about 11 per cent the following week, wiping a reported $2 billion from the company’s market value.
Maurice Blackburn Principal Vavaa Mawuli said Maurice Blackburn was getting on with the job of obtaining a recovery for affected AMP shareholders.
“This case alleges AMP breached its obligations to act efficiently, honestly and fairly in providing financial services to its customers. It also failed to disclose market sensitive information to the Australian Stock Exchange. This amounts to misleading and deceptive conduct and is a breach of the company’s continuous disclosure obligations,” Ms Mawuli said.
Investors who purchased AMP shares between 10 May 2012 and 13 April 2018 and/or American Depositary Receipts representing AMP shares between 7 June 2012 and 13 April 2018 are invited to register their interest in the AMP Shareholder Class Action before 23 November 2020 ahead of a Courtordered mediation in April of next year.
Maurice Blackburn is Australia’s leading class action law firm with an unparalleled record as the only Australian firm to have recovered in excess of $100 million in shareholder class actions, a record we have achieved on seven occasions.
COVID-19 offers lifestyle opportunities for owner-occupiers
WHILE it has impacted our lives dramatically, one silver lining of the coronavirus pandemic is the opportunity it is now offering owneroccupiers, particularly first homebuyers.
RiskWise Property ResearchCEO Doron Peleg said COVID-19 had helped strengthen ‘work from home’ opportunities meaning owner-occupiers could take advantage of ‘lifestyle’ prospects instead of being tied to employment hubs.
“While there’s nothing new about mobile professionals, the onset of COVID-19 changed the way we work as a nation with vastly increasing numbers working from home - and it’s here to stay,” Mr Peleg said.
Pete Wargent, co-founder of Buyers Buyers, a national marketplace offering affordable buyer’s agency services to all Australians, said that lifestyle buyers were out in force.
“Those who work in a stable corporate environment, but do so remotely, are now taking advantage of great buying opportunities in NSW, Victoria and southeast Queensland.
“Before COVID-19 hit, there was already a strong trend of sea- and tree-change homebuyers looking for the best of all worlds – lifestyle, accessibility to employment hubs and affordable housing” Mr Wargent said.
RiskWise Property Research has summarised the key locations experiencing this trend.
Mr Peleg of RiskWise said “these include areas of southeast Queensland such as the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast, just over the NSW border in Byron Bay and further south on the Central Coast, in areas such as North Avoca, Terrigal and Wamberal. Then there’s also sought-after locations such as the Hunter Valley, Wollongong and the South Coast, and in Victoria, the Mornington Peninsula, Geelong and Ballarat.”
Mr Peleg said beachside suburbs especially outperformed the market as they offered such fantastic lifestyle opportunities.
As RiskWise reported in November 2019, there is a clear trend regarding their popularity and potential for capital growth as outlined in research it undertook on the Top 10 Suburbs to
Cut super tax – don’t hit struggling small businesses: Ombudsman
The Australian Small Business and Family Enterprise Ombudsman Kate Carnell says the federal government could take some financial pressure off small businesses without adversely impacting workers, by deferring superannuation guarantee increases and cutting taxes on superannuation payments.
In a letter to the Treasurer, Ms Carnell has proposed a two-year deferral on legislated superannuation guarantee increases, while also cutting the 15% tax on compulsory employer superannuation guarantee contributions to 7.5% during that time.
Ms Carnell says the combined measures offset each other, to ensure workers end up with a similar superannuation amount as they would have under the scheduled increase.
“We have to get the balance right by ensuring small businesses aren’t hit with rising costs and workers are
no worse off,” Ms Carnell says.
“Many small businesses are already struggling to stay afloat as a result of the COVID-induced recession and cannot afford to pay higher costs.
“These increased costs would put small business owners under even more financial strain, placing jobs and businesses at risk.
“It is equally important to safeguard the long-term financial future of Australians through superannuation.
“Our modelling shows our proposed tax cut would cost the Government no more than $6 billion per year and would also support struggling small businesses and help the millions of Australians who used the early access to superannuation program to start restoring their longterm super balance.
“Ultimately, by implementing this proposal, the federal government would be supporting small businesses and all Australians who deserve a dignified retirement.” Retire & Build Equity.
He said even in Sydney, for example, despite COVID-19, and previous events such as the credit restrictions by APRA, scrutinising of loan applications as a result of the Royal Commission and material price reductions until the election results in May 2019, houses simply enjoyed strong demand with the chronic undersupply ensuring solid capital growth.
“The average holding period of houses in Sydney, that in 75.9 per cent of cases belong to owner-occupiers, is 12.2 years. This means owneroccupiers with secure jobs and no serviceability issues are not impacted by short-term market movements, unless they need to re-finance,” Mr Peleg said.
He said the Sydney property market, had delivered solid capital growth of 22 per cent in the past five years and obviously houses in popular areas delivered much stronger capital growth during that period. For example, houses in Paddington experienced price increase of 56 per cent and in St. Peters houses saw capital growth of 51 per cent during that period.
“Home buyers with long-term holding strategies were well positioned to negotiate aggressively to purchase high-quality houses that usually enjoyed very strong demand,” he said.
While Sydney is a good case study, houses in Greater Melbourne delivered even stronger capital growth of 38 per cent during the past five years.
Strong demand for houses has also resulted in strong capital growth in the Sunshine Coast and the Gold Coast with 28.4 per cent and 26 per cent, respectively.
Working remotely an accelerating phenomenon
In 2016 the Australian Bureau of Statistics reported almost a third (3.5 million) of all employed Australians regularly worked from home. Since the onset of COVID-19, this number has skyrocketed. In March aGartner surveyshowed 88 per cent of Australian organisations have adopted working from home as part of their coronavirus response many to cut costs during the pandemic by focusing on “effective use of technology (cited by 70 per cent of respondents) and freezing new hiring”.
“While many organisations were using remote working to improve productivity and the attractiveness of workplaces to entice the best talent, reduce office costs and reduce international and intrastate travel prior to the onset of COVID-19, it has now become an accelerated phenomenon with offices across large cities trying to minimise face-to-face meetings that required commuting.
“Interestingly, since COVID-19 and the increase in remote working there has actually been an improvement in productivity.” The Gartner survey says 49 per cent of respondents said they had been more productive during the time they would normally spend commuting to work, 36 per cent were less stressed and 32 per cent were better able to concentrate as they were not distracted by colleagues.
Office vacancy rates are a clear sign of how the pandemic has affected employment. According to the latest Property Council of Australia’s Office Market Report, Sydney’s has almost doubled from 3.9 per cent to 5.6 per cent for the six months to the end of July while in the Melbourne CBD it rose from 3.2 per cent to 5.9 per cent.
“While there was definitely uncertainty during the first wave of the pandemic, the second wave shows us quite clearly these new work practices are here to say most likely until end of 2020 and well into 2021,” he said.
“Therefore, the demand for regional areas offering great lifestyle choices is likely to further increase among those with stable incomes.”
There are also several other incentives that put home buyers and especially first home buyers in an enviable position. These include federal government programs such as theFirst Home Buyers Deposit Schemewhereby a deposit of just a 5 per cent deposit can be used to enter the property market and the avoidance of Lenders Mortgage Insurance (LMI), as well as stamp duty exemptions.
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